The Amarna Period was an era of Egyptian history during the latter half of the Eighteenth Dynasty when the royal residence of the pharaoh and his queen was shifted to Akhetaten ('Horizon of the Aten') in what is now Amarna.
That Period in Egyptian history is a spectacular time filled with mystery, regardless of the massive research and analysis of Egyptologists and layman enthusiasts. Because religion played such a significant role in all of Egypt's history, the period becomes a grand anomaly worthy of such focus. Most of the research and excavations surrounding this period focus on five areas. These areas include the main players during the period, who are certainly not limited to Akhenaten and Nefertiti, the city founded by Akhenaten from which the period derives its name, the religion of the period, the art of the period and the period's literature (specifically correspondence known as the Amarna Letters). What of course sets this period apart from the remainder of Egyptian history is first and foremost, its religious theology, together with a distinct form of art.
The sun god and the king lay at the heart of Egypt's theology as it developed over the previous centuries. It was the daily course of the sun god, who was also the primeval creator god, that guaranteed the continued existence of his creation. The sun god's daily journey through the heavens was symbolically enacted in temples with the principle aim of maintaining the created order of the universe. The king partook a crucial role in this daily event, at least symbolically through the god's priests.
Re, the sun god, went through a daily cycle of death and rebirth, dying at the end of each day and being reborn in the morning as Re-Horakhty, and it was through this cycle that the blessed dead traveled so as to enjoy rebirth along with the sun. Osiris, the god of the dead and the underworld, with whom the deceased were traditionally identified, was increasingly seen as an aspect of Re, and the same held true for all other gods.
The art of the Amarna period is very distinctive. The royal family were depicted with elongated heads, long necks and narrow chests. They generally had spindly limbs, but heavy hips and thighs, with a pronounced paunch. Literary developments of the period include a revision of the written script to more closely reflect the spoken language of the time, and the replacement of funerary texts with a hymn to the Aten.
Egypt's Amarna Period
The Amarna Period was an era of Egyptian history during the latter half of the Eighteenth Dynasty when the royal residence of the pharaoh and his queen was shifted to Akhetaten ('Horizon of the Aten') in what is now Amarna.
That Period in Egyptian history is a spectacular time filled with mystery, regardless of the massive research and analysis of Egyptologists and layman enthusiasts. Because religion played such a significant role in all of Egypt's history, the period becomes a grand anomaly worthy of such focus. Most of the research and excavations surrounding this period focus on five areas. These areas include the main players during the period, who are certainly not limited to Akhenaten and Nefertiti, the city founded by Akhenaten from which the period derives its name, the religion of the period, the art of the period and the period's literature (specifically correspondence known as the Amarna Letters).
What of course sets this period apart from the remainder of Egyptian history is first and foremost, its religious theology, together with a distinct form of art.
The sun god and the king lay at the heart of Egypt's theology as it developed over the previous centuries. It was the daily course of the sun god, who was also the primeval creator god, that guaranteed the continued existence of his creation. The sun god's daily journey through the heavens was symbolically enacted in temples with the principle aim of maintaining the created order of the universe. The king partook a crucial role in this daily event, at least symbolically through the god's priests.
Re, the sun god, went through a daily cycle of death and rebirth, dying at the end of each day and being reborn in the morning as Re-Horakhty, and it was through this cycle that the blessed dead traveled so as to enjoy rebirth along with the sun. Osiris, the god of the dead and the underworld, with whom the deceased were traditionally identified, was increasingly seen as an aspect of Re, and the same held true for all other gods.
The art of the Amarna period is very distinctive. The royal family were depicted with elongated heads, long necks and narrow chests. They generally had spindly limbs, but heavy hips and thighs, with a pronounced paunch. Literary developments of the period include a revision of the written script to more closely reflect the spoken language of the time, and the replacement of funerary texts with a hymn to the Aten.